If talent were the only criteria, Demi Lovato, 16, should move to the head of the Disney class of young pop stars. At her concert Saturday at Target Center, she should more talent and skills onstage than Miley Cyrus, the Jonas Brothers, Hilary Duff or any other young star in the Disney empire.

She proved to be a strong singer, a pretty good songwriter but, most of all, an immensely likable, fresh and — get this — spontaneous performer. She was in the moment, complaining about her hoarse voice because she’d met 1,000 fans in the afternoon at Mall of America. (About 5,000 tween girls and moms turned out for the concert.)

When she pulled a fan out of the audience to sing with her, Lovato didn’t stick to the script and choose the usual little girl under 10 but rather her new BFF, Emily, a teenager (who looked older than Demi) whom she’d met at the Mall and her hotel and they’d just bonded. And they sang “This Is Me” (from “Camp Rock”) together like high-fiving bandmates who’d been doing it since childhood.

Lovato was friendly, gracious, natural, comfortable and talkative. And she worked it — with her long, sweaty hair and her rock ‘n’ strut. This Demi — who looks like a young Demi Moore, with the hoarse speaking voice to match — has the potential to realize a post-Disney music career.

Opening were Disney darling Jordan Pruitt, who was pleasant, and 2008 “American Idol” runnerup David Archuleta, who was a crowd pleaser.  Wearing a an oversized Pepsodent smile and too much hair producer, Archie, now 18, showed an emotive voice, bouncy stage presence and too many generic pop songs.

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 9th, 2009 at 12:48 pm and is filed under American Idol, Concerts, Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.